9:59am
Saint Paul
Last week I finished the Walter Isaacson biography, Elon Musk.
I’ll write up some of the interesting facts I found, and send them your way soon.
But one thing that stands out is how involved Elon is in every decision and activity at his companies.
The man is busy.
And he doesn’t trust many people to handle their own jobs without his input. He just has too many new ideas to test and try, and he likes taking risks.
Where does he get all his ideas?
One thing that’s mentioned frequently in the book is that Elon takes time to stare silently into space.
That’s where ideas come from, when your mind has time to percolate without constantly consuming.
Copywriting legend Eugene Schwartz would sit at a table with a 33minute, 33second timer set.
He had a rule. He could spend that silent time writing, or doing nothing.
No coffee refills. No bathroom breaks. No pencil sharpening.
All that happened before he started a 33:33 chunk of work.
And after 4 hours of that, he’d spend the rest of his day doing whatever he liked.
…which was often research for his marketing, including seeing the popular movies of his day, to feed his subconscious so it could generate ideas for him.
Elon’s voracious in his information consumption, too.
And though they have very different approaches to work, they both use silence as a tool.